Religious unrest in Guj will harm fair trial in Sohrab case: CBI

The CBI cited unrest among religious communities and accused with relatives as prosecutors, magistrates and judges to request the Supreme Court on Wednesday to shift the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case trial outside Gujarat.

A bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha accepted senior advocate K T S Tulsi’s plea to make the state a party and issued notices to accused, including former minister Amit Shah and suspended senior police officers. The court asked all of them to file responses by January 27.

“There is every likelihood of failure of justice on account of intimidating and pressure tactics of the accused,” said Tulsi arguing for the CBI, which was entrusted with the probe into the 2005 fake encounter case on January 12 last year after the court found holes in the state police’s investigations. Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter on November 26, 2005.

The CBI lawyer said Shah, arrested on July 25 last year and debarred by the highest court from entering Gujarat while on bail, wielded enormous influence and muscle power and was using it to tamper witnesses while a large number of his supporters throng the court room to create a tense atmosphere.

CBI expressed uneasiness with the Gujarat subordinate judiciary and said it has “reliably learnt that the chargesheeted accused have the presence of their kith and kin in the judiciary in various capacities as prosecutors, magistrates as well as judges and, therefore, the perception of the public in general is that they could directly or indirectly influence and/or interfere in the administration of justice”.

The CBI said the witnesses were afraid to depose against accused police officers, including D G Vanzara. It said: “Though Vanzara was a DIG in Ahmedabad’s anti-terrorist squad, he acquired reputation of being very powerful in view of his close proximity with the political leadership of Gujarat.”